Anakin's Promise
by RoverGirl
Summary: UPDATE: CHAPTER ELEVEN NOW OPERATIONAL. AU! Episode Three. In her dreams Padmé sees Anakin die but he made a promise he'd come back alive.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own Star Wars. This is merely a fan-based fiction.

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_Horror! The Seperatist Army makes an agressive move to try and seize control of Coruscant lead by General Grievous. The Jedi Council recalls all ships and Jedi in an attempt to defeat the Seperatists. _

_By__ chance Chancellor Palpatine is discovered to be the Sith Lord the Jedi have been looking forward._

_After escaping from General Anakin Skywalker and his apprentice Commander Ahsoka Tano, the Chancellor, or Darth Sidious, launches an unsucessful attempt to destroy the Jedi Temple. He tries to make an escape into space but is temporarily thwarted by General Aayla Secura and her team of clones. _

_After a game of cat and mouse he escapes into space._

_Before going after Sidious, Anakin Skywalker returns to visit his pregnant wife, Senator Padmé Amidala... _

"It's going to be dangerous," I warn him once again...and again he pulls me close.

He sighs in my ear. I place a hand on the back of his neck and the other on his left shoulder, gripping tightly.

"It's always going to be dangerous," he whispers so softly.

I grip him tighter, then let go so we can look at each other eye to eye.

"What if the dreams are real? What if you die out there?" I whimper with worry.

He smiles and laughs softly.

"That's not going to happen, Padmé. I'm so sure of it. Your dreams are just your imagination playing tricks on you."

He kisses me so softly. I feel like I'm going to break into a million pieces and he knows it. He's been so soft and gentle ever since he arrived here to tell me about this mission. The senate is still in shock about what has happened, and I refuse to ignore my dreams. My dreams of him dying, fighting against Palatine.

"But your dreams came true," I murmur and again he pulls me into a strong gentle hug. I can feel him flinching and tensing.

I don't have to see his face to know he is frowning and trying to calm himself down.

"I know...but I'll be okay."

He again meets my eyes and this time smiles. "I promise I won't die."

"You can't promise me that," I tell him.

"Yes I can, and I have. I'll come back alive, Padmé. You have to trust me."

Anakin strokes my cheek sadly and wipes away a tear that has fallen.

"Don't cry," he hushes.

"Anakin, I'm afraid," I whisper to him, choking on unshed tears.

"I know, my love. But if I don't go we may lose our chance at getting rid of the Sith, forever."

He kisses me gently. I try and make it last longer as the seconds feel like microseconds and I feel that I'm losing him.

"This will be over soon. Afterwards we can go to Naboo and set up the baby's room together."

A slight smile plays on my lips. He's so excited about becoming a father. Then the sadness creeps in again like an oncoming tide and so does the pain in my aching heart. He won't make it. I know it deep down inside.

He'll never live to see our child grow up.

"I've got to go, my love. I'll see you soon, I promise."

Another kiss.

A short kiss.

Then he smiles, turns around and heads for his ship. I head outside to see him off.

"Anakin..."

He turns around and smiles. "I promise I'll come back alive, Padmé."

He doesn't understand.

"Threepio, look after her," he says to the golden droid who was talking to R2D2 in his usual position on the familiar starfighter.

"I shall, Master Anakin."

He climbs in and straps himself in place before putting his communication headset on. He turns to look at me and smiles.

"I promise," he says one more time.

"I wish you the best of luck, Master Anakin," Threepio wishes him.

Anakin nods at him in thanks before closing the cockpit and zooming off into the sky, into the fight.

Towards his death.

Only once he is out of sight do I let my tears go, crashing down like waterfalls on a stormy day.

"Oh, Milady," I hear Threepio say, "is there anything I can do?"

I shake my head several times. "No Threepio, nothing at the moment."

I hear him move off. If he was human I'm sure he would be deeply upset.

"Oh my, I feel so helpless," I hear him say.

That confirms it.

I look skywards once again. The traffic of this very early morning zipping across a dark blue sky, unaware that Anakin Skywalker is going to his death and there is nothing nobody can do about it.

I pull my dressing gown tighter around me and head indoors.

I'm wearing the same one I wore nearly eleven years ago, when Anakin had his nightmare on Naboo. I'm surprised I've kept this for so long. Maybe it's a coincidence or part of his prophecy. His mother died like in his dreams all those years ago. Now I'm losing my Ani to my dreams.

Why do dreams have to tell us the future? It hurts too much. I sit down on the couch and ponder his words.

_'I promise to come back alive, Padmé.'_

He won't! He won't! This is breaking my heart! Ani will die to save us all! Why does he always have to be the hero...why?...why him?...

The sun is shining now. Did I doze off? It seems like only seconds ago since I sat down. Today is an important day at the senate. I have to go. Nothing will be accomplished weeping here. I read a datapad lying on the table. It's a message from Bail, probably brought here by Threepio, asking to meet up before congress. I have to go, but I can't help but think of what Ani told me on his first visit last night...  
_  
"Padmé!"_

I was already wide awake. I knew he had arrived before he had yelled my name.

He runs into our bedroom. Fear, shock, horror and exhaustion all present on his face.

"Ani? What's happened? Are you okay?"

I try to get up and he stops me.

"I'm fine! I'm fine! Just stay in bed and rest. I don't you want to exert yourself ."

He places his flesh hand on my face while using his mechanical one to gently keep me in bed. Relief is on his face, helping displace some of the negativity from him.

"What is it?"

"He said he was going to kill you," he admitted.

"Who?" I gasp in shock, trying to get up again.

"No, Padmé! Please stay in bed, I'll explain everything," he said in alarm.

"Anakin? What's-"

He hushes me, placing a flesh finger on my lips.

"The Sith lord...it's Palpatine," he said, colour slightly draining from his face as he said it.

I gasp in shock.

"I don't believe it!"

"He's escaped, Master Windu and several others have gone after him. The senate is calling an emergency meeting, you'll have to go. Senator Organa is on his way over. I can't stay long, I have to go to the Temple and prepare for a possible attack."

I nod in agreement.

"Will you be up for it?" he asks.

He's concerned, and so am I.

"Yes, I'll be fine."

And with that he lets go and kisses me.

"Okay."

He takes a deep breath before helping me up, placing a hand on my rounded stomach when I'm on my feet.

"The baby's fine," he says, after using the force once again to check the little one's health, something he'd got into a habit of doing ever since I told him I was pregnant.

I place my hand on top of his.

"Of course the baby's fine, we're both fine."

I flash him a smile and it calms him down. I reach up to kiss him and he reciprocates before he lets go.

"I'll be back when I can," he promises before disappearing off towards his starfighter.

"What is it, Milady?" Moteé asks me as she and Ellé rush into the room.

"The chancellor is the Sith lord, the senate has to convene immediately," I tell them, "Senator Organa is on his way over, I need to get ready."

"Yes, Milady," they reply in unison.

"Threepio, I am expecting guests," I tell the golden droid as he enters the room.

"Yes, Milady," he replies as I start getting ready for what is to come.

The loss of the chancellor, the Sith lord! How could this have happened? Not even the Jedi realised this!

But I guess in the long term, if the Jedi can find and kill Palpatine then the clone wars will end.

I still can't believe it though. Palpatine was one of my closest advisors. He served me when I was queen. How long has he been planning this? It's scary how it all makes sense now. He used me to get into his position of power, used the senate, the Jedi.

He's betrayed us all.

But my dream...my dream!

Anakin gets killed fighting the Sith in space! In a fight above Coruscant!

Ellé snaps me back to real life. I still need to hide my bump. If the senate or the Jedi find out then Anakin will be in a lot of trouble.

She suggests the dark blue gown with elaborate Naboo patterns on the neckline that match a silver headpiece she and Moteé created a few days ago.

I agree with her. It's ideal for concealing my and Anakin's little secret.

And just like that I become the Senator of Naboo again, and alert Jar Jar that I require him.


	2. Chapter 2

The early morning sky was ablaze with light.

Bright little spots of white, blue, yellow, red and green peppered the atmosphere like a bizarre light show, disrupting the dark blue of the leaving night and the early orange glow of the newly born morning.

At some point, in both of the hemispheres all one trillion inhabitants of the urbanized planet had looked skyward to view the sight above them, history being made, a battle being decided. Everyone listened in. Everyone watched. They all knew what was going on.

The Sith lord was making his escape and that the Sith lord was Chancellor Palpatine!

From commuters in the traffic lanes to dancers in the numerous nightclubs, from the highest building to subterranean offices and businesses. All listened in to news of old and well known to the latest breaking fresh from the battle for news of Palpatine's capture and the destruction of the separatist fleet. The news reports were flooding in; some true, some fake, some half-truths. Cheers had gone up when cameras had captured a fleet of Jedi starfighters and ships packed with clone troopers taking off into the melee, and earlier when they'd been chasing a smaller ship around in the lower atmosphere.

The hearts and minds of so many held on tightly to the belief that their man, their hero, their knight with a lightsaber, the hero with no fear would defeat Palpatine and bring an end to the clone wars, restoring peace once again. Everyone talked with pride and relief about that, about him. Some even made premature toasts and cheers to the victory they believed would come at Anakin Skywalker's hands.

In Coco Town, a dilapidated industrial area of the city planet, a young blonde haired waitress looked skyward like many others had done.

Her blue eyes scoured the skies above watching as red lights exploded out of existence.

She twiddled the deathstick in her right hand before taking a long drag of it and breathing the smoke out slowly whilst leaning against the door to Dex's Diner.

She smiled as two of the regular costumers approached, nodded politely and went in to order their dinners. A third one was close behind them and slowed his pace a little.

"Hey, Hermione. Been busy this morning?" he asked her.

"Sure have. This whole fight in the heavens has gotten everyone up and hungry for news," she replied, holding the door open for them to enter.

"Another of the regulars, Dex!" she yelled into the diner.

"Thanks, Hermione," Dex replied, "Do you mind cutting your break short and having a longer lunch break? It's gonna get real busy in here soon."

"Okay, Dex," she replied.

Hermoine Bagwa quickly finished off her deathstick and stubbed it out with her black leather boot. Holding the door open for another customer, she flashed a smile and welcomed them in. She quickly tidied up her pale blue mini dress and belt then the garter on her right thigh which held her stylus before heading back into the diner.

Dex beamed at her from the kitchen and gestured to two sliders in the serving hatch. Hermoine picked them up and took them to the two Aleena travellers who had ordered them.

She briefly glanced at the HoloNet News to see the latest news about the fight in the skies before taking the orders of the three regular costumers who had entered.

Glaring at the droid waitress WA-7 who had laid a trap for her to trip over, she stepped over it to collect the Jawa juice for two human costumers.

"Reckon your friend Obi-Wan has gone up to fight the Sith lord?" she asked Dex who was grilling firaxan shark fillet.

The Besalisk nodded as Hermione took the Jawa juice then headed back over.

"I believe so, Hermione. Him and Anakin," Dex replied.

"The hero with no fear himself, if anyone can bring an end to this it's him," Hermoine said confidently.

"Yes, you're right there."

Dex looked out at the now very busy diner.

"You watch. Anytime now, we are going to hear that Obi-Wan and Anakin have captured the Sith lord and defeated him," Dex told her.

Hermoine looked around at the news and the costumers and smiled.

"I'd better take some orders then," she said with a smile on her face.

Dex chuckled as she got her stylus out of her garter and clipped her order comm off of her belt, directing another quick glare at WA-7 before smiling at an entering costumer.

Out of view, Dex's smile turned to a frown.

"I hope you that get that monster, Anakin," he whispered.

But Anakin was yet to go into battle.

He had left Padmé and intended to fly straight into the heart of the battle, catching up with the other Jedi who were fighting.

He had been literally metres from leaving the atmosphere when the force rang out to him to head back down. It called for him to go to the Jedi temple, and he listened to it. He sensed great tragedy if he didn't. He had dived sharply and headed on a direct course.

Now here he stood.

Looking skyward once again, Anakin thought of his own selfish actions, or could've been actions. Only years of growth, experience and maturity separated him from his younger foolish self. The nineteen year old padawan who had challenged Count Dooku and lost and the twenty-three year old knight, a hero who was wiser and stronger.

That younger foolish Anakin Skywalker would never had listened to the force. Never later recognised the voice that he knew so well from a past of pain.

Qui-Gon Jinn had spoken to him.

_"Anakin! Stop! Head to the temple! You must head into the fight with your mind clear! Not like this! Head to the temple! Go now!" _

On his way to the temple, Anakin had detected Obi-Wan's force signature in the hanger bay. Yoda's too. And as the force continued to guide him, the darkness started to fade. He could sense it.

He was tumbling away from the dark side of the force, and the more he tumbled, the more he could understand. He knew it was only a matter of time before he could detect Palpatine's force signature.

Obi-Wan watched as Anakin continued to stare out into the distance, not keen to disturb him. He felt Anakin had changed but he didn't understand how. Beside him Yoda studied the young knight curiously. They kept to the shadows.

"Looking for something, young Skywalker is," Yoda noted in hushed tones.

"I wonder exactly what. The dark side shrouds everything."

"See through it, possibly he may."

"But how, Master?" Obi-Wan asked him.

"Unusual ways the force works in. If he is the chosen one, Anakin is then perhaps closer to the force than us."

Anakin's head snapped up and his body went rigid then relaxed slightly.

Unnerved by what he had just witnessed, Obi-Wan approached him.

"Anakin? What is it?" he asked the young knight.

"I know where he is," Anakin said absent-mindedly.

Obi-Wan looked at his former apprentice, baffled by his claim.

"The dark side of the force conceals him, how do you know, Anakin?"

Anakin continued to look skyward, his eyes narrowed as if he had found the tiny speck that was Palpatine in the big morning sky. Both masters felt Anakin's concentration. It came off him in gentle waves, calm with the light of Anakin's battered heart.

"The force is showing me," Anakin told them, "he's on a big cruiser, General Grievous's ship."

"Then that is the ship you will target," Yoda told them.

Obi-Wan placed his hand on Anakin's shoulder. "Let's go, Anakin," he said as they headed towards their starfighters.

Both Jedi turned around and went to their respective ships, climbing in, hooking up communication headsets and buckling up and adjusting seatbelts.

R2D2 and R4-P17 acknowledged that they were both ready for action, drawing smiles from all three Jedi.

Yoda wandered over to Anakin as he tugged his seatbelts on.

"Well, is she?"

Anakin stopped dead in his preflight checks.

"Senator Amidala?" Yoda probed.

"She's fine the last time I heard," the young knight replied quickly.

Anakin looked across and saw his own startled reflection in the wise master's eyes.

"Known I have for years. No need for concern, Anakin."

Yoda reached out to Anakin with the force and gently calmed him down.

"Forbidden, attachments are. They can lead a Jedi astray. However I sense great love in you, Anakin. Love is a powerful emotion. Powerful enough, her death, destroy you it would not. Grieve you would, then continue to live. Her wish that would be. Attached to the Senator you have not become, a change to the rules required after the war is over, hmm? What you say, Anakin?"

Anakin was positively speechless!

A warning from the force made him continue his preflight checks. Yoda sensed it to.

"Talk later we shall, after the war is won," Yoda promised, "gone beyond all expectations you have, help the Jedi to evolve you shall, once Darth Sidious is destroyed."

Anakin nodded and smiled.

"Thank you, Master Yoda."

Yoda nodded and frowned.

"The shroud of the dark side, more powerful than ever. Sense him can you still?"

"Yes, Master."

"May the force be with you, young Skywalker," Yoda told him as he backed off from the starfighter.

"May the force be with you too, Master," he replied defiantly.

Anakin closed the cockpit and fired up his starfighter.

"Anakin, do you read me?" Obi-Wan's voice filtered through his headset loud and clear.

"I read you, Master."

"You lead the way, Anakin. You're the only one who has an idea as to Palpatine's whereabouts."

Anakin urged his starfighter into life and out of the hanger. He saw Obi-Wan leave directly behind him.

"What's the plan of attack then?" Obi-Wan asked him.

"Head straight for Grievous's ship and capture Palpatine so he can be jailed for his crimes against the Republic," Anakin replied.

"Sounds like a good plan."

"A dangerous plan, Master."

"Since when have our plans ever been safe, Anakin?" Obi-Wan asked him.

"Good point, Master," Anakin chuckled.

R2D2 whistled the coordinates of Grievous's ship to R4-P17 who gave them to Obi-Wan.

"Thanks R4," he told the red and white astromech droid who whistled back what sounded like 'you're welcome'.

As they left the atmosphere, Anakin's thoughts turned to Padmé and their unborn child.

He was doing this for them...


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I do not own Star Wars. This is merely a fan-based fiction. Warning! Character Death.

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Blaster fire greeted them from all directions.

Debris from destroyed craft threatened to destroy them in return. The large cruisers were locked in side to side combat. Blue, red, white, green and yellow exploded everywhere in a dramatic display above the city planet.

The blue rimmed starfighter of Aayla Secura led a squadron of clone Z-95 starfighters into the heat of battle, concentrating their fire on one of the separatist ships, targeting it's weapons and engines.

Anakin and Obi-Wan dived and weaved, trying to avoid the deadly firework show.

"Flying is for droids," Obi-Wan muttered as he jerked his starfighter away from the remains of a buzz droid.

"This is where the fun begins, Master," Anakin replied quite cheerfully over the radio.

Obi-Wan promised himself that he would make Anakin pay for that remark once all this was over.

He momentarily glanced at the yellow marked starfighter, dipping and weaving with ease. Obi-Wan couldn't help but feel a certain level of jealousy towards his former padawan before quashing it heavily.

He had to make do with his own skills and also R4's guidance.

He could hear R4 rattling on about something and suspected the droid was actually talking to R2D2.

Obi-Wan followed as Anakin ducked away from Aayla's attack.

"Can you still sense Palpatine, Anakin?"

"Yes I can, Master."

Obi-Wan watched as the other starfighter peeled off to avoid blaster fire then quickly returned to the parallel course Anakin had been on.

The blaster fire was getting worse.

Obi-Wan's radio crackled into life.

"_Charity_ to Generals Kenobi and Skywalker, please be careful we're going into close combat with a separatist ship," a clone commander warned them.

A droid ship met a fiery end right in front of them, causing both to jolt out of the way.

Anakin and Obi-Wan ducked below the radioed combat between the republic and separatist vessels, avoiding the ion cannon death valley.

R2 whistled yet more course corrections and Anakin listened. He jerked his starfighter away and Obi-Wan followed suit.

"Thanks, R2," Anakin said to the droid.

"Anakin?" Obi-Wan asked.

Anakin knew what question Obi-Wan had actually asked without asking.

"He's close, Master."

Anakin visualised where Palpatine was and mentally plotted a path to get to him...just as Anakin spotted what had come into view.

A Buzz droid nearly took Obi-Wan out.

"Anakin! Remember I'm following you!", Obi-Wan reminded him.

"Yes, Master. Sorry, Master," Anakin quickly apologised.

Anakin adjusted his course until his target was dead ahead, more mindful of keeping his master and close friend safe.

"Master, Sidious is ahead," Anakin informed him.

"Understood."

Somewhere in the force Anakin heard a voice yell a warning to him and the split second he took trying to identify the voice was all it took to not heed it.

A blast from an ion cannon slammed into Obi-Wan's starfighter and R4 was ripped apart.

R2 screamed, whistling and chirping away. Anakin guessed that the droid was distort at the destruction of the other droid.

"Focus, R2, I need you," Anakin told him and the droid whistled back an affirmative. "Master, are you okay?"

"I'm fine, Anakin, but I've lost my guidance and weapons systems along with R4," Obi-Wan's crackling voice replied.

Anakin mentally reviewed the situation. Obi-Wan was flying crippled, R4 had been destroyed, his weapons had been disabled and he knew that he'd only hinder his progress, then again Anakin could use all the help he could when he faced Sidious.

No. The force sang to him quite insistently. He had to face Sidious alone, and in his heart and mind he wasn't prepared to risk Obi-Wan's life. He was too valuable.

So he thought up options. He could ask Obi-Wan to turn back, but he would never do that. He could get Yoda to give him the order to retreat. No, Obi-Wan could be more stubborn than an agitated Rancor.

He had an idea. A stupid idea and if he aimed wrong he'd end up killing his master. But he'd rather injure him than have Sidious kill him off.

Sidious was his to fight, and no one else was privy to engage in the fight.

"Master?"

"Yes, Anakin?" Obi-Wan replied.

"I'm terribly sorry about this."

"Terribly sorry about what?" Obi-Wan asked as he dodged the remains of a destroyed tri-fighter.

"What I'm about to do, but you'll only follow me and I can't allow to you to die fighting Sidious."

Obi-Wan blinked.

"What is it, Anakin? Tell me."

"Obi-Wan, I need you to do something for me."

Obi-Wan had a bad feeling about this.

"Name it, Anakin."

"Padmé is carrying my child," Anakin informed him, "please look after her...tell her that I love her and above all else, I've done this for her and the baby."

Anakin did not dare mention who else he was doing this for. He made a promise. Yoda hadn't mentioned the person, which he was grateful for, and the fact that the dark side shrouded the Force currently.

"You can tell her yourself, Anakin. You're not doing this al-."

A blast from a tri-fighter ripped apart Obi-Wan's starfighter.

"Master!

Anakin spun his own starfighter around and returned fire, destroying the offending craft then dived to intercept his stricken master in the maze of blaster fire and carnage.

He saw a flash of blue to his right and indentifed it as another starfighter who also had dived after Obi-Wan; a starfighter with blue markings.

"Go after Palpatine, Anakin. I'll save Obi-Wan!" Aayla yelled at him over the radio.

Anakin felt the force surround Obi-Wan and felt Aayla reach out to bring his starfighter under control. He checked Obi-Wan's life signs and discovered he was weak and heavily injured but he was alive. He'd be in the medical wing of the Jedi Temple for weeks though.

The Force sang to him to keep going. R2 whistled to Anakin that he'd alerted the Temple already. Anakin had no idea how the droid had done it.

Anakin jerked the controls of his starfighter and headed back towards Grievous's ship.

While blaster fire danced around him, nothing seemed to touch him or go anywhere near him.

The great vessel loomed in front of him, trying to escape the melee and as Anakin got ready to blast the shields down, his mind briefly drifted back to when he'd discovered the Sith lord and spared a thought for his padawan.

Dead padawan.

Sidious had killed Ahsoka in cold blood.

If Anakin hadn't stopped to try and save her then Sidious wouldn't have escaped in the first place.

He pushed what had happened out of his mind and opened fire on the shield protecting the landing bay. The shield collapsed and Anakin flew inside before the secondary concerted shields quickly slammed into place. He crash-landed on in the large bay, sparks flying from the friction between the decelerating ship and the floor. R4 screamed in alarm. The starfighter took out several droids as it gradually slowed down, reducing them to scrap and spare parts.

The starfighter gradually came to a halt and Anakin undid his seatbelts, opened the cockpit and jumped out.

"There he is, get him!" a droid shouted.

Anakin activated his lightsaber and began hacking down the droids with ease as they tried to shot him.

"R2, hack into the ship systems, find a way to stop this one leaving," Anakin ordered.

R2 whistled a response and ejected himself from the starfighter and headed over to the nearest plug in conduit.

Anakin quickly and efficiently cut through the rest of the droids so only he and R2 remained.

After checking to make sure the coast was clear, he deactivated his lightsaber and walked over to R2 who had plugged himself in, gained access and was inputting commands to the central computer core of the ship, encrypting his commands and making it neigh impossible for anyone to do anything to stop the ship going into geostationary orbit.

"Send a message to the Temple when you have access to the communications systems, R2. Let them know I've found the Sith Lord."

R2 whistled back and Anakin was sure that the droid had said something along the lines of I'm coming with you.

He shook his head.

"R2, I need you to stay here. I'll be fine."

R2 clicked in protest and that definitely sounded like the droid was pointing out he always ended up in trouble and needed a helping hand.

Anakin looked across the mammoth size hanger bay and searched through the force for Palpatine, and the Force replied clearly, giving him Palpatine's precise location.

No doubt the Sith lord in return could sense him as well.

Anakin turned on his heel and headed towards an elevator without so much as a backward glance at R2.

The little astromech droid watched him leave.

R2D2 was genuinely scared. He quaked in his bolts. The mathematics he'd calculated did not add up. How he'd calculated it meant Anakin would die at the hands of the Sith lord and after an additional calculation R2D2 wished C-3P0 was present as that would boost his master's survival chances somehow and meant he would have some company to help stop him dwelling on his calculations.

Alone in the hanger bay, R2 looked at the yellow marked starfighter and realised he could, once he'd finished with the computer, at least check on Obi-Wan Kenobi by calling Aayla Secura's astromech droid, R4-G9.


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I do not own Star Wars. This is merely a fan-based fiction.

In the elevator Anakin encountered yet more droids, and promptly sliced them down to size quite quickly. He pressed the keys for the correct deck and the elevator slide up, humming lowly as it headed into the bowels of the mighty vessel.

Anakin closed his eyes, took in a deep breath and let it out slowly.

The calm before the storm.

He knew for sure now that Palpatine was expecting him. He could also sense Dooku and Grievous near to him. He had no idea how this terminal battle was going to commence. In his head originally he and Ahsoka were going to defeat Sidious...but that didn't happen...and now things were more complicated. It was three against one. Two Sith Lords and one cyborg versus a Jedi Knight. It wasn't a fair fight and Anakin had the odds stacked against him. He reckoned he'd take on Dooku first. He was the weak leak despite his power.

Anakin opened his eyes.

This really was it. The final confrontation. The battle between good and evil, light and dark, defeat of the Sith or the Jedi.

Some voice in the back of his mind starting talking about survival whether or not this was actually a good idea to go this alone and he quashed it quickly. This was no situation for doubt or second thoughts. He knew he had to do this alone now.

He grimaced as he remembered something, and reached inside his robes to the back of his belt to unclasp and pull out another lightsaber. A very familiar lightsaber and he shed a tear...

_They stood side by side as Palpatine laughed them, their lightsabers drawn and held in defensive posture._

_He looked at Anakin in disgust._

"_My, my, Anakin. How the chosen one has fallen. You could've been the perfect Sith Lord. You could've had all the power in the universe and beyond," he informed him._

_Anakin shook his head in disagreement. _

"_My dreams showed me what would happen if I listened to you, and that's not going to happen. You've been whispering poison in my ears for years now." _

_Palpatine smiled at him._

"_So the young slave has finally worked it out, I give you credit, Anakin, you've figured out in a few hours what has fooled the Jedi for decades. The Sith will never be destroyed, afterall it only takes an angry Jedi to make one."_

_Palpatine shot a lightning bolt at Ahsoka who easily deflected it with her lightsaber, taking the blunt of it exceptionally well._

_Anakin lunged at him. His blue lightsaber met Palpatine's red in a criss-crossed flurry of sparks. _

_His assault on Ahsoka stopped and the padawan attacked Palpatine from behind. With a quick force shove he threw her backwards. _

_Ahsoka smacked her head off the hard floor but quickly got back up on her feet as the Force had help cushion her fall._

_Palpatine smiled and laughed at Anakin, he quickly withdrew his red lightsaber catching Anakin off guard and used force lightning to sending him flying into the entrance chamber of his office. _

_Ahsoka tried to attack from behind again and managed to launch a volley assault on the Sith lord, meeting his lightsaber blow for blow in a deadly fighting dance around the large room...but Palpatine used an old Sith mind trick on her that forced Ahsoka to drop her lightsaber. _

_With his eyes yellow with gluttonous delight, he plunged his lightsaber into the young Togruta. _

_Ahsoka gasped. _

_The Sith lord's lightsaber had slid clean through her abdomen. _

_She was impaled on the red blade._

_After a few seconds of gloating, Palpatine deactivated the blade and the young padawan fell to the ground, her hands instantly going for the injury. _

"_AHSOKA!" Anakin yelled in shock as he bounded back into the chamber, his lightsaber held high in an attack upon Palpatine. _

_The Sith lord easily deflected the attack and aimed force lightning at the large windows, shattering them. _

"_Now save your scum, Jedi," Palpatine sneered as he jumped out of the window and onto the hull of a small ship that Anakin and Ahsoka hadn't seen arrive. _

_Anakin ran to his fallen padawan. Dropping to his knees he picked her up off of the cold floor, cradling her in his arms. _

_She was cooling down and fading from consciousness._

"_Ahsoka, hang in there. We'll get you back to the Temple, you're going to be fine," he told her. _

_Anakin sensed Masters Windu, Fisto and Ki-Adi-Mundi approaching with four other Jedi. _

"_Master?" Ahsoka wheezed._

"_Don't talk, Snips. Save your energy, try and heal," Anakin ordered her, "help is on it's way."_

"_Go after him, Master," Ahsoka whispered._

_Anakin could feel her presence in the Force fading._

"_It's too late for that, Snips. I can find him later. You need to hold on."_

"_You're crying," she wheezed._

_Anakin felt his face. There were tears on his cheeks. _

"_Don't cry, Master. Doesn't hurt...that much," she told him. _

"_No. No, Snips. Don't say that. You're going to be saved," Anakin reassured her. _

_Ahsoka smiled sadly. _

_Anakin could now hear their fellow Jedi running towards the office. _

"_Anakin!" Mace Windu yelled out._

"_Palpatine's gone through the window!" the young knight yelled._

_Seconds later the other Jedi joined them._

_Windu knelt down next to Ahsoka and Anakin._

"_He's on a small ship," he told them._

"_I see it," Ki-Adi-Mundi told them._

_He ran off, quickly followed by the four knights._

_Ahsoka shut her eyes._

"_Ahsoka, don't you dare," Anakin warned her._

_Her eyes opened wearily. _

"_What happened?" Mace asked. _

"_Palpatine," Ahsoka whispered, "must...be...stopped."_

"_Conserve your strength, Ahsoka," Windu told her._

_Like Anakin he could feel her presence in the force dissipating. He knew she didn't have long left. A quick look at her injury, half hidden by her and Anakin's hands was enough to confirm it was terminal. _

_No amount of healing would save her._

"_It's...not...so bad," she said, smiling a little._

_Anakin was distraught. _

"_Thank you, Master...for every...thing."_

_Kit Fisto and Mace shared a knowing look. Anakin had indeed been an excellent master; unorthodox in his methods and unpredictable to all ends, but he had taught Ahsoka well and the pair had become a great master/padawan team. _

"_Promise...me...get him..."_

_Anakin shook his head, "I will, Ahsoka. Don't you worry about that. Now hang on in there." _

_Ahsoka's breathing rapidly diminished and her condition deteriorated. Anakin could barely feel her pulse and she was cold. Very cold. Her eyelids dropped before she opened them in an attempt that clearly zapped her little remaining strength. _

"_I...love you...Master," she told him._

_Anakin smiled at her, "I know, Snips."_

_Ahsoka smiled back slightly, looking at him one last time. Her eyes rolled back into her head, her heavy eyelids closed and she sighed, drawing out her last breath. _

_Her presence faded in the force. _

_Anakin sat there for a second before reality kicked in._

"_Snips," he whispered._

_The master padawan bond snapped violently and Anakin visibly winced. _

_He held her closer, drawing her into a tight bear hug._

"_I'm sorry, Snips. I'm so sorry," he whispered, choking on a sob._

_He let go of her body and looked at Mace Windu._

"_I'm sorry, Anakin," Mace told him, placing a comforting hand on his left arm. _

_Anakin wiped his tears away. The Force tried to comfort him and he ignored it. _

"_She needs looking after," Anakin whispered._

"_Don't worry," Kit told him, getting Anakin's attention, "I'll take her back to the Temple."_

"_Anakin, we need to capture Palpatine," Mace told him._

"_The Force will guide me," he stated, "let's go."_

_Anakin looked at his padawan._

"_I promise, Snips, I'll get him."_

_With that he took Ahsoka's lightsaber, gave Ahsoka herself to Kit and stalked out of Palpatine's office, forgetting about Ahsoka and focusing on the task at hand._

Anakin snapped out of his reverie as he felt the lift starting to slow.

He wiped his eyes with his flesh hand, getting rid of the tears that had sprung to them, put his mental barriers up as high as they would go, looked at his padawan's lightsaber and smiled.

"For you, Ahsoka," he said calmly and then looked up, "for all of you."

He clipped Ahsoka's lightsaber to the back of his belt again and readied himself to face Darth Sidious for the final time.


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I do not own Star Wars. This is merely a fan-based fiction. Please Rate & Review.

The lift stopped and the doors opened.

He calmly stepped out on to an observation room of sorts and looked down. He could see Sidious seated in a large dark throne of sorts, his back to the battle outside, a black canvas dotted with ships, explosions, burst of lights like fireworks.

Appropriate, he thought.

Grievous was stood next to him on his right hand side and Count Dooku on his left.

He walked down one of two black metallic staircases in the room.

No one said a word until Anakin was stood mere feet in front of them.

"So you've finally decided to join our party, Anakin? Excellent, but where are General Kenobi and that delightful padawan of yours? I'm surprised they're not with you," said Sidious in delight.

"Ahsoka's dead. You know that," Anakin pointed out bluntly.

Grievous laughed full heartedly.

"About time," the cyborg sneered, "that little brat grew annoying!"

Anakin didn't rise to the bait.

"And General Kenobi? Now him not being here is a surprise, I thought you two were joined at the hip," Sidious enquired further.

"This has nothing to do with him," Anakin stated.

Sidious laughed low in his throat.

"That wouldn't stop him," he pointed out.

"He's seriously injured after a blast from an ion cannon caught his ship, happy now?" Anakin told him.

"Forever getting injured," Count Dooku interjected, "how typical. Do you ever get bored rescuing him?"

Anakin let the remark slip.

"So, Anakin," Sidious began, "what brings you here?"

"By order of the Galactic Senate of the Republic, all three of you are under arrest," he informed them.

"Are you trying to threaten us, Jedi?" Sidious sneered.

"Perhaps," Dooku suggested, "this is best sorted out, rather than through words, through prowess of a lightsaber."

"Very well, Lord Tyranus," Sidious agreed.

Dooku stepped forward and activated his lightsaber while Anakin dropped his cloak and then activated his.

The pair began circling each other, lightsabers kept down and low.

"I've been looking forward to this," Dooku admitted.

"My powers have grown since the last time we met, Count," Anakin informed him.

"We'll see about that," Dooku growled.

Anakin lunged at him. Blue and red clashing and sparking as the two fighters parried and fencing, leaping and darting, on the defensive and on the attack, utilising every centimetre of the room available.

They broke apart.

"My, my, you have grown," Dooku commented, "but it's not near enough to defeat me."

Anakin lunged again, this time catching Dooku off guard.

The Sith lord backed off, stepping backward to avoid the blows Anakin was dealing him. Anakin hit and left and right, swinging his lightsaber around to try and catch Dooku in his stomach. Dooku counteracted, twisted the lightsabers so they were locked in a criss-cross. Locked and centimetres apart, Dooku smiled at Anakin.

"Did you really think you could challenge the Sith, Anakin?"

Anakin broke the lock and slipped his lightsaber down and then up, slicing Dooku's hands off and sending them flying along with his lightsaber.

The Sith Lord gasped.

Anakin kicked him in his stomach and forced the Count back and in shock Dooku fell to his knees.

Anakin caught Dooku's red lightsaber and switched it off.

"Now surrender," Anakin told him.

Sidious laughed long and low and prompted Anakin, Dooku and Grievous to look at him.

"Master," Dooku said in a shaky voice.

White hot pain flooded his system and he felt himself beginning to go into shock.

"How typical, Lord Tyranus. Once again you underestimated our young Jedi friend here. Yes, Anakin. You have grown strong. So very strong, and you, Lord Tyranus, have grown weak, so very weak with age and corruption," Sidious told them.

An explosion rocked the ship.

"What the?!" Grievous cried, "what are those workers on the bridge doing?!" he snarled, "Excuse me, Darth Sidious, or we'll up end up dead at the hands of a bunch of idiots!"

Sidious gestured with his hand that Grievous was free to go.

The cyborg stormed out, glaring at Anakin on his way out and wheezing and coughing just as he left the room.

"Master..."

Sidious turned his attention back to Count Dooku.

"You have no useful purpose now," Sidious told him bluntly.

Dooku looked at him. Shock, horror, realisation all clashing together on his face, in his eyes. Anakin felt it. Dooku was genuinely deep down afraid. Afraid for his life, afraid of Sidious...even afraid of him.

"Anakin, kill him," Sidious told the Jedi.

Anakin looked disgusted. Dooku looked at Anakin in terror.

"No one will blame you for killing him. After all, he's a threat to the Republic," Sidious continued.

Dooku began to shake in fear and terror at what he was hearing.

"He is an unarmed prisoner of the Republic," Anakin stated, "I won't kill him and you don't care about the Republic or else you wouldn't have betrayed it."

"He's a menace," Sidious spat out.

"So are you," Anakin replied.

Sidious' smile tapered into a small slim sneer.

"So it's settled then..."

In the blink of an eye Sidious stood up, activated his lightsaber and threw it at Dooku, severing his head. His body fell to the floor and his head bounced and rolled off across the floor.

Anakin went on the attack, springing towards Sidious who easily sent him flying with force lightning.

Anakin hit the ceiling twice in the attack and yelled out in pain. He hit a wall, white pain exploding from every cell in his body, then finally hit floor.

Dazed and confused, Anakin was powerless to resist Sidious as he used a force suggestion to grab him and throw him again into a wall and then to floor before throwing him across the floor so he landed at his feet.

Sidious looked at the injured Jedi knight. Blood poured from a cut on his hairline, he'd heard ribs crack in the impacts. Anakin looked dazed and confused but remarkably he still had his lightsaber in his hand, the blade now deactivated.

He laughed and smiled as he kicked the offending item away, leaving the Knight defenceless.

"You have no need for that now," Sidious told him.

He waited out the time Anakin required to regain some of his senses, the best part of a minute, before he continued talking.

"I would say this is your last chance to join me and rule the galaxy, Anakin," he told him as Anakin listened, wheezing as he tried to breathe, "you have so some much promise, so much talent...so much anger...the death of your mother at the hands of the sand people, the death of your padawan...the death of your master."

That got Anakin's attention. He shook his head to disagree. His master was alive, he could feel it. Obi-Wan had survived.

"Liar," Anakin wheezed.

"Together we could've saved Padmé and your unborn children from their deaths, learned how to stop death altogether, be the only masters of the galaxy...but no...you want to be the perfect little Jedi," -Sidious laughed low in his throat- "now, my friend, you will die..."

Still not completely with it, Sidious' attack came as a surprise.

Anakin screamed out in agonising pain as Sidious used force lightning on him to finish him off.

His screams turned to silence as his voice was robbed in the assault, his muscles went into excruciating spasms, his whole body contorted, his heart rate went erratic, the tortured organ seemed like it was trying to rip itself out of his chest, his lungs were like liquid fire, every cell zapped him with a sharp sting, crackling terrorised and deafened his ears, his eyes bulged in their sockets and he gasped at air he couldn't take, he looked at Sidious, blue cracks of lightning blinding his vision, that evil open-mouthed grin, the laughter he knew was echoing from it and the white light...the white light on the edges of his vision, he could see it...feel it...he was getting closer to it...he'd join his padawan...and that enticed him to hang on.

He promised to defeat Sidious.

Despite the spasms, despite the throbbing cramps, despite the pure sheer hell Sidious was putting him through Anakin begin to reach for Ahsoka's lightsaber on the back of his belt.

He squeezed his eyes shut, trying to channel any energy he could.

Very very slowly he began to reach round with his left hand, his flesh hand.

At first he didn't realise he actually _was_ moving his arm. But he was.

He felt Sidious' attack intensify and he locked up completely.

Anakin gulped air then screamed out to the Dark Lord's delight.

"That's it," he urged, "die, Anakin, die."

Anakin's fingers contracted and dug into his palm drawing scarlet blood. His eyelids sprung open.

Sidious observed in delight as blood vessels began to rupture underneath Anakin's skin, his eyes went blood red and his tears turned scarlet, blood began to pour from his ears and nostrils, his blue veins oh so apparent underneath his almost perfect white skin. He knew the knight would suffer a complete breakdown soon while a side-order of cardiac arrest wasn't very far off.

Anakin closed his eyes and called upon the Force for help and from somewhere he got a response.

A warm tingling sensation made itself present in his left hand and at that moment his knuckles touched Ahsoka's lightsaber.

He was closer than he thought!

He willed his fingers to straighten out and he bit his lip as he forced them out of his palm. Hooking a straightened out finger around the lightsaber, he used it as a lever to pull it off his belt and his other fingers clamped firmly around it. Calling upon the Force for one last time he found the sudden strength.

In a split second he activated Ahsoka's lightsaber, pushed himself up off the floor and drove the green blade up through Sidious' abdomen, his chest, his neck and out the top of his head.

The lightning stopped.

Anakin's eyes rolled back into his head, his eyelids dropped shut, his breathing eased from his blueish lips and his body slumped on that of the Sith lord's twitching corpse. The green blade disappeared and Ahsoka's lightsaber clattered loudly to the floor.

Sidious took several startles breaths as various neuron receptors fired in his brain, but the spirit was gone.

Darth Sidious was dead.

The two bodies of the Sith master and Jedi knight remained upright, each holding the other up as they leaned on each other. Behind them the battle raged on between the Separatists and the Republic fleet, a moving painting of battleships amongst explosions and debris.

The ship lurched violently to starboard and the bodies finally separated and collapsed to the floor. Ahsoka's lightsaber rolled towards Anakin and fitted perfectly into the palm of his bloody flesh hand. Because of the ship's pitch angle, his own lightsaber had also rolled towards him, stopped by his hip.

Sidious' body continued to twitch as it hadn't realised it was dead yet.

Silence fell and the sound of the battle outside took over as the soundtrack...


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I do not own Star Wars. This is merely a fan-based fiction.  
Please Rate & Review.

* * *

'Go ahead R2-D2. Is General Skywalker well?'

'I don't know. He disappeared about an hour ago. He has found Chancellor Palpatine. I have General Grievous's ship parked in geostationary orbit.'

'I shall relay that message forward.'

'Are you in the Temple hanger?'

'Affirmative.'

R2 waited for the other droid to quickly relay the message, keeping an eye out for danger. The little droid had connected himself back into the starfighter so he could make contact.

'Message received by the Temple.'

'Thank you R4-G9. Is there any news on General Kenobi?'

'Affirmative. General Secura and Master Yoda aided his crash landing and he survived. He was alive upon retrieval from his starfighter but R4-'

'I saw what happened,' R2 replied sadly, 'how bad was General Kenobi?'

'He looked a mess and he was intubated immediately.'

'Oh dear, I'm not looking forward to telling Master Anakin that!'

'Wouldn't he know through the Force?'

'I don't know, he seemed pretty intend on finding Chancellor Palpatine.'

'Very well, R2-D2.'

'Alert me of any updates.'

'Affirmative.'

R2D2 shut down communications, jumped out of his shotgun seat in the starfighter wing and went back over to the conduit.

Logging in was easy as he'd been keeping an eye on Anakin's location after securing geostationary orbit and sure enough Anakin was still in the same location so R2 logged out and set off to find him. He felt he couldn't do anything else constructive in the hanger bay.

Yoda lurched forward and gasped sharply.

He looked around and saw that Aayla Secura had also been affected.

She looked him in the eye and a silent acknowledgement passed between them.

Aayla ran out of the medical wing of the Jedi Temple towards the main hanger.

She had to rescue Anakin.

Yoda looked down at the floor sadly from where he sat next to Ahsoka Tano.

He sensed Mace Windu enter the closed off cubicle.

"Yoda?"

"Died, he has," Yoda confirmed immediately, "also dead, Darth Sidious is. The dark side, resided it has, clear to see now."

"Anakin has fulfilled the prophecy," Mace quietly noted.

"He has," Yoda replied.

He placed a clawed hand on Ahsoka's face.

"Aayla yelled her plan to me as we passed. She's going to board Grievous's ship, rescue Anakin and deal with Grievous," Mace explained as he stood next to Yoda.

"The Clone Wars, end in this battle they will. Finished along with the Sith they have," Yoda stated.

Mace looked at Ahsoka and couldn't help but feel a sense of justice had been dealt for her death, but also sadness.

"The rules," Yoda said, "inappropriate. Not written at a time of grief they were. Given time must be, for all involved. But not now. Much to be done there is. Word on Obi-Wan is there?"

"Obi-Wan is still in surgery, his internal injuries are extensive," Mace replied then paused before continuing, "he'll have to be told that Ahsoka and Anakin have been killed."

"To me, that duty falls," Yoda told him, "Dead, however Anakin may not be."

Mace looked at Yoda in disbelief.

"But the Force-"

Yoda took his clawed hand off of Ahsoka's face and waved it at Mace.

"Moves in mysterious ways, the Force does. Save Anakin, it might just."

He looked back at Ahsoka.

"She had so much promise," Mace said sorrowful, "she would've become a great knight."

Yoda bowed his head.

"Correct you are. But remember her for dying, we must not. For her compassion and skill, we will."

Yoda jumped down from his seat.

"A duty I must attend," he told Mace, "Even if Anakin has died, his legacy lives on."

"How so?" Mace asked curiously.

"Offspring, Anakin has," Yoda admitted, "soon to be born."

"Senator Amidala's the mother isn't she?" Mace asked, connecting the dots up quickly.

Yoda nodded before going on his way.

"Finished at the senate, she will be for now and brought here she must," he said over his shoulder...

R2D2 made his way through the various decks of General Grievous' ship, trying to avoid trouble and being spotted at all costs.

He'd heard some droids complaining about the ship's orbit being locked and if R2 were human then the droid would've chuckled at them.

At a darkened junction he hid as he saw several Destroyers going the opposite way.

Then he heard weapons fire and voices. The Destroyers sprung to life and began opening fire on someone.

"Get down!"

R2 recognised that voice. It was Commander Rex.

The blaster fire fight ended as quickly as it started- with a big explosion.

Someone or something had thrown a bomb of some description and it did the job perfectly.

"Let's go!" Rex ordered.

R2 saw him take off down a corridor with his men and whistled loudly to get Rex's attention.

The clone commander turned round.

"R2!" he greeted.

The astromech droid left his hiding place and went over to Rex, talking in his droid language very very quickly. Rex had been taught many things whilst at Kamino and learnt a great deal over the course of the Clone Wars but to understand astromech droids, he hadn't learnt that.

"Do you know where Anakin is, R2?" he asked, hoping to get a whistle he did understood and was accepted as R2's version of 'yes'.

R2 whistled an affirmative.

"Okay, show us."

Rex turned to one of his men.

"You, go get a stretcher and medi kit, we might need it."

R2 whistled another affirmative.

"We'll definitely need a stretcher," Rex rephrased his words, "use the tracker to locate us."

"Yes, Sir," replied the clone trooper before he headed back the way he came.

Rex turned to R2 again, "lead the way, R2."

R2 went as quickly as he could through the corridors, hoping they wouldn't encounter any more Destroyers and that Anakin was actually okay. They entered the lift and R2 plugged in, inputting the right floor.

The lift doors closed and it began the quick accent to seven floors up.

"General Secura to Commander Rex."

Rex switched on his comm unit.

"Go ahead, General."

"Rex, it is imperative you find General Skywalker."

The lift jolted to stop and the doors opened.

"We're following R2D2, General Secura. He knows where General Skywalker is."

"Very well. Once you have found General Skywalker your orders are to get him to safety."

"Acknowledged," Rex replied, ending the transmission and directing his men.

R2 quickly found the observation room Anakin's life-sign had been in and led Rex and his men in.

"General!" Rex yelled, running over to fallen knight.

Rex dropped his weapon and shook Anakin's shoulder.

"General Skywalker!"


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: I do not own Star Wars. This is merely a fan-based fiction.  
Please Rate & Review.

* * *

Rex checked for a pulse whilst another clone began making a mental list of his injuries and the other clone troopers secured the area.

"Can't find a pulse," Rex said aloud.

"He looks awful," one of the other clones commented as Rex removed his helmet.

"Someone report in to General Secura," Rex ordered.

He tilted Anakin's head back and checked for breathing.

"Sith! He's not breathing."

R2 whistled loudly in alarm as the other clone picked up Anakin's lightsaber and took Ahsoka's out of his hand.

"It's okay, R2," Rex assured the droid.

R2 wasn't assured in the slightest. He was more worried than he'd ever been in his mechanical life.

Rex pinched Anakin's nose and gave his friend and commandeering officer five rescue breaths then stripped him of his belt and upper tunics and began chest compressions.

"C'mon, Anakin" he urged.

He went back to rescue breaths, absently hearing the call go to the Jedi Temple that they'd found Anakin and he was in a bad way.

Switching back to chest compressions he kept going.

Someone thundered into the room; the trooper Rex had sent back for medical supplies.

The clone trooper lay down the stretcher next to Anakin and got a defibrillator out of the medical kit and set it up at a voltage of 200.

"C'mon, General. Don't do this, Ahsoka needs you," Rex told him, unaware of the Padawan's demise.

Rex placed the paddles on his friend and prayed to the Force that Anakin would be saved.

"Clear!" he ordered.

The other troopers leapt back in surprise at the roughness of Rex's voice.

The paddles discharged their voltage. The corpse jolted from the shock.

Rex held his breath.

The defibrillator bleeped loudly twice.

"Negative heart rate," The defibrillator's computerised voice told them.

Rex swore loudly.

"Increase that bloody thing!" Rex snapped as he continued compressions.

A third trooper placed an oxygen mask over Anakin's face as another changed the voltage, putting it up to 300.

"Okay," confirmed the trooper.

Rex stopped compressions and the defibrillator discharged again.

Again the corpse jolted in response.

The defibrillator bleeped loudly twice once more.

"Negative heart rate."

"Fuck!" Rex yelled, "c'mon, don't stay dead, Anakin!"

Rex began chest compressions again whilst the other trooper upped the voltage to 360.

"Clear!" he yelled.

Rex leapt back.

The voltage once again jolted the dead Jedi.

Rex prayed to the Force for a miracle.

The defibrillator bleeped twice again...then silence...then two more bleeps...then...

"Analysing heartbeat."

Rex bit his tongue.

The silent seconds stretched.

"Heartbeat analysed...heart-rate stabilised...confirmed normal humanoid heart rate...hospitalisation is required immediately, respiration negative, blood oxygenation levels critical," the defibrillator confirmed.

Rex looked at the readout screen on the defibrillator then breathed a sigh of relief in one microsecond then barked an order in the next.

"It's weak, let's get him intubated and out of here!"

Rex removed the oxygen mask and began to intubate the fallen hero just as Aayla Secura arrived.

"Rex!"

"General Secura!"

She reached out with the Force as she ran over to them. Anakin wasn't there. She couldn't sense him. Just an empty void of nothingness.

"How is he?" Aayla asked.

"Heart-rate's stable but low, various injuries, he's not breathing," one of the clones told her.

Aayla looked to the corpses of Sidious and Dooku in turn. A small smile graced her face.

Anakin had done it.

"Let's get moving!" Rex said loudly.

Aayla turned her attention back to her friend.

The clones quickly secured Anakin, put the defibrillator and an additional medical scanner alongside him, attached sensors to his bare chest and forehead and picked him up as Rex finished intubating him and attached the oxygen mask and bag, squeezing the bag to begin imitation breathing.

Aayla held back her emotions as she took over from Rex who quickly put his helmet back on.

Anakin was a mess and he needed her more than ever, more than that time on Maridun...

The Force yelled out to her.

"Rex, take over. I have to stop Grievous!" Aayla told the clone.

He did so and the clones quickly rushed Anakin out of the battle room and headed towards their ship.

R2 whistled at Aayla but she didn't hear him.

Aayla let the Force guide her three decks up, using the network of service tunnels to get to Grievous's position quicker, on the way deflecting shots from destroyers and droids alike.

She arrived just in time to see Grievous chuckle low in his throat and enter an escape pod.

The door slammed shut and a second later the pod jettisoned.

She skidded to a stop outside the airlock door and saw the pod drift out away from the ship, along with all the other pods.

"You cunning cyborg," she whispered quietly.

Just as she reached for her comm device to contact one of the cruisers, the pod exploded in spectacular style, making Aayla jump.

A starfighter zipped pass the explosion and began destroying the other escape pods.

Aayla got onto her comm.

"Secura to Tachi, nice shooting!" she said with a smile on her face.

"Thanks, Aayla," the human Jedi replied, "did I get him?"

Siri Tachi swung her starfighter into tight circle and opened fire on the remains of Grievous's escape pod, obliterating it completely.

"You sure did!" Aayla confirmed.

The Force assured both of them that General Grievous had been completely destroyed.

"My astromech droid says 100% destruction," Siri told her over the comm.

"Looks like it," Aayla told her.

"I'll report to the temple, Tachi out."

Siri peeled off to return to fighting the separatists.

The Force called to Aayla again and she broke into a run. She had to secure the ship and land it...

Enroute to their own ship, Rex kept Anakin breathing.

The monitor by Anakin's side showed that his heart-rate was weak and slow but it was at least stable.

In his head Rex kept chanting to himself the same mantra over and over.

_"He's going to be fine. He's going to be fine. He's going to be fine. He's going to be fine. He's going to be fine. He's going to be fine."_

Two of the clones kept an eye out for destroyers and droids whilst R2 lead the way, whistling away constantly.

Rex wished he could speak droid but he guessed R2 was doing the same as him.

The path back to the ship was relatively clear of enemies, only a small handful of droids.

They were half way back.

R2 screamed a warning and the party ducked down a service corridor just as a particularly large conduit exploded in the main corridor they had been in.

"Thanks, R2," Rex yelled, breaking his mantra.

He kept his eyes fixed on the monitors of the defibrillator and the other scanner, letting the other clones guide the way.

They were virtually running, and just as well seeing as the mighty vessel was still under attack from smaller fighters and getting caught in crossfire of other micro battles within the main conflict.

"Nearly there, Sir," said one of the other clones, again breaking Rex's concentration.

Rex looked up and noticed they had entered a lift and were heading for where their ship was docked.

"Hang in there, Anakin," Rex whispered, looking down at his broken face.

Out of the corner of his eye, Rex noticed something, but ignored it.

He looked at the monitors again...but there it was again in his peripheral vision.

He had seen it before but ignored it. His mind had blanked it out like it hadn't existed...like his mind didn't want it to exist.

He got onto his comm link.

"General Secura, this is Commander Rex. We are approaching our vessel," he informed the Jedi.

"Understood, Rex. I'm on my way to the bridge, I'm going to fly this beauty down to the surface, see you at the temple," she responded immediately.

"R4, I need you," she told her droid on the same comm link. She knew R4 had been listening in.

Down in the hanger bay the droid promptly whistled, jumped out of it's cockpit Aayla's starfighter which had come to a halt twenty metres away from Anakin's and headed for the control room of the vessel.

"Do you want us to remain aboard instead then?" Rex asked.

"Negative, I'll take too long, get Anakin aboard your ship, detach then go straight to the surface."

"Understood, General," Rex replied as the lift stopped.

The droids rushed out.

"I'll send reinforcements," Rex told her.

R2 whistled loudly and changed course.

"R2 is on his way to help you," Rex informed her.

"Thank you, I'll need all the help I can get," she replied.

"General?" Rex asked, "Where is Commander Tano?"

There was a long pause over the radio.

As she ran, Aayla's throat tightened up and her stomach knotted.

She swallowed hard.

"Ahsoka's dead, Rex. Palpatine killed her."

Behind his helmet tears sprung to the clone's eyes.

He looked at what he saw in his peripheral vision...Anakin and Ahsoka's lightsabers in the hand of one of his men.

"Rex?" Aayla asked.

"I'm okay, General," he replied, wiping all emotion from his voice.

He had to focus on keeping Anakin breathing...had to keep his blood oxygenated...had to save him...had to...Rex gulped in his throat.

"Anakin," he whispered near silently, "I'm so sorry, my friend."

The clones arrived at their ship.

More clones greeted them.

"Go help General Secura," Rex barked at them, "she's heading for the bridge."

The clones legged it.

Rex and his team got Anakin aboard the ship and it immediately separated from the Separatist vessel and plotted a course down to the planet.

"Good luck, Aayla," Rex whispered.


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: I do not own Star Wars. This is merely a fan-based fiction.  
Please Rate & Review.

* * *

In her heart she felt it and it distracted her.

Padmé placed her hand over her chest and pretended she was clearing her throat, all the time looking around like some of the other galactic representatives were, and like them she was listening to what was going on around her. Some were applauding and cheering still.

Mon Mothma had just been voted in as the new chancellor of the Republic and the applause had died down.

As the new Chancellor of the Republic, Mon Mothma, in her trademark white robes with silver decoration stood proudly and spoke sadly of how Palpatine had betrayed them all and how they had to move on and make progress.

"Are you okay, Milady?" Moteé asked in a hushed voice.

"I'm fine," Padmé lied quickly, knowing full well that her handmaiden would see straight through it.

"Are you sure?" Senator Bail Organa asked.

The two were very close friends and frequently shared a box together in the senate.

"I'm fine, just some throat trouble," Padmé told him.

She lowered her hand.

The Naboo senator had said her bit. She had helped vote Mon Mothma in, spoke against Palpatine and the war, appealed to the galactic senate of the Republic to end it and spoken well of the Jedi.

Behind her she could sense that Moteé had tensed up as well.

"What's wrong, Padmé?" Bail asked her again, "you've tensed up."

Padmé forced herself to relax.

"Something's not right," she finally admitted, "I can feel it."

"Within the senate?" Bail queried.

"No," Padmé replied hesitantly, "it's the Jedi. Something's happened."

She looked behind her. Bail and Moteé also turned round to see Eirtaé approach them.

"Beg you pardon, Milady," Eirtaé said to her, "but Master Yoda wishes to speak with you immediately, it's urgent."

Padmé nodded and stood up. She left the box and headed outside, followed by her blonde handmaiden.

Yoda waited patiently outside Senator Amidala's senate box, leaning on his gimer stick.

"Master Yoda," she addressed.

He smiled at her.

"Senator Amidala," he said with a small smile, nodding politely, "well have you been?"

"Yes, I have," she replied.

Yoda's expression changed to one of sadness.

"It's Anakin, isn't it?" she replied without thinking.

Yoda nodded sadly.

"To the temple, you must come with me. But first news I have. Killed, Palpatine has been."

"By Anakin?" she asked.

Yoda nodded.

By this point Bail came out of the box.

Padmé, Yoda and Eirtaé looked at him.

"You might wish to tell Mon Mothma, she's just been voted in as the new chancellor," he told the Jedi Master.

"An excellent choice for the role," Yoda replied.

Padmé and Bail went back into their box, followed by Yoda and Eirtaé. They all sat down, Yoda sitting beside the two handmaidens.

"-and by this accord I hope the clone wars will soon come to an end," Mothma finished.

The senate applauded Mon Mothma wildly. Padmé, Bail, Moteé and Eirtaé joined in. Yoda also applauded.

Once the applause had died down and Mon Mothma took a breather, Senator Amidala stood up.

"Chancellor," she said loudly, "Master Yoda has arrived with news from the Jedi Council."

Mon Mothma looked at the Naboo senator and nodded.

Master Yoda stood up and went to stand by Senator Amidala's side as their box detached from side of the senate chamber and hovered in place in front of the new Chancellor.

"Master Yoda, we welcome your presence in this difficult new age," she greeted warmly.

"Congratulations upon your election, Chancellor Mon Mothma," Yoda replied with humidity, bowing his head.

The whole senate chamber erupted into applause again.

Yoda looked up again and Mon Mothma's assistant called for quiet to let the revered Jedi speak.

"What news do you bring, Master Yoda?" Mon Mothma enquired.

"Chancellor Palpatine has been killed by Master Anakin Skywalker, along with Count Dooku. General Grievous, also destroyed he has been," he announced loud and clear.

For what felt like the millionth time that day the senate chamber exploded into applause and cheer.

Mon Mothma herself smiled and was going to applaud...but she saw the expression on Yoda's face and called for the senate to calm down.

"There's more, isn't there, Master Yoda?" she asked.

Yoda nodded sadly.

"Lost to us trying to stop Darth Sidious...is Padawan Ahsoka Tano."

The Senate gasped collectively and silence fell like a thick black curtain.

"What about Master Skywalker?" yelled an unseen senate member.

Mon Mothma cast a glance at the senate member before looking back at Yoda.

"His condition critical," he admitted.

Padmé need not worry about looking afraid and panicked: virtually every single member of senate shared looks of fear, shock, horror, terror, panic, worry, alarm and despair.

Even her handmaidens looked sad and down.

"Unknown if he will survive at present time," Yoda added, looking down.

Padmé fell back into her seat and she wasn't the only one to do so. Mon Mothma and her assistant did the exact same thing along with a few other senators.

It felt like a dark damp blanket has smothered the senate.

"Updated the senate will be of his progress," Yoda said, looking back up.

"Thank you, Master Yoda," Mon Mothma told him, standing up again.

Padmé looked at her. How she envied Mon Mothma, and admired her at the same time.

"Is there any other news?" Mon Mothma asked.

"Nearly over, the war is."

This time the senate just applauded, the knowledge of their hero, the hero with no fear, had taken it's toll.

"Winning the army of the Republic is, captured and cornered the Separatist ships are. Surrendered some of them already have. Now return to the Jedi Temple I shall."

"Thank you once again, Master Yoda, for bringing this information to us. The galactic senate of the Republic gives you it's condolences for the Jedi's losses and it's best wishes for the recovery of Master Anakin Skywalker."

The Senate erupted into a roar of cheer and well wishing, applauding the Jedi Master, applauding the Jedi as a whole, and praying to the force, the gods they believed in, the spirits they worshipped, all hoping for the recovery of their fallen hero. Their thoughts with the Jedi.

Senator Amidala's box returned to it's place on the chamber wall.

"We will conclude this session here. The senate will reconvene tomorrow afternoon. Exact times will be sent out this evening. Thank you senators and may the force be with us all," Mon Mothma ended.

The senate applauded her again and the senators and their accompanists began to leave their boxes.

Yoda turned to Padmé.

"To the temple at once," he explained, "more there is for you to know."

"Master Yoda-" Bail started.

"Come too, you must, Senator Organa, well you were about to wish Master Skywalker's recovery, but needed you are also for Master Kenobi's sake."

"Obi-Wan? What happened to him?" Padmé asked worriedly.

"Also seriously injured he is. But now out of surgery."

Yoda walked side by side with Senator Amidala as they left their box.

Bail walked alongside Eirtaé and Moteé walked behind her fellow handmaiden.

"A transport to the Jedi Temple awaits us," Yoda told them.

"Moteé, please alert Representative Bings," Padmé told her handmaiden.

"Yes, Milady," she replied, scurrying off...

The mighty Republic Cruiser landed without incident and immediately a side-hatch opened and a team of clones and medical droids hurried a stretcher into a waiting transport which promptly took off for the Jedi Temple.

A Jedi healer and her padawan took over from the droids immediately drawing on the Force to help assist the injured man. She yelled various instructions to the medical droids, asked for information from the clones' leader and reassured the unconscious barely alive Jedi that he was safe...that he would be okay...he was nearly home...


	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: I do not own Star Wars. This is merely a fan-based fiction.  
Please Rate & Review.

* * *

Where was he?

Everything looked the same.

The same monotonous scenery.

No matter where he wandered and he was sure he was wandering but he couldn't find any point of direction, and the Force wasn't being very helpful. It just kept mumbling under it's own breath ignoring him.

And he was alone.

All alone.

He really wished for R2D2 or C3P0 or any droid really.

This whole wandering around staring at the same blank scenery was getting quite bland and boring.

He panned around again.

Yes he was sure pretty sure he had done a complete three-hundred and sixty degree circle, looking in all directions.

Yes. He had done that.

He did it again to be certain he had done it.

It hadn't felt like he had and it did feel like he had but he knew for a fact he'd looked all the way around at least twice.

He sent yet another inquiry into the Force asking for his location and the Force kept mumbling on like an old familiar message, like an ageing Hutt finally losing their marbles.

If he hadn't known better he'd call this the home of homeostasis.

A maintenance of stable conditions in a small internal environment.

Or was it an external environment?

He wasn't sure.

Did the Force even count as an environment?

He kept wandering around.

Everything was so clean. It was white.

Yes it was white.

He realised that now. It was white.

He was walking in the white.

He was standing in the white, spinning around in the white, or was he?

"Directions, please?" he called aloud.

The Force started giggling...he looked behind him.

Yes he had definitely looked behind him.

There was a youngling behind him.

Female. Blonde hair with big sweet blue eyes.

She looked at him curiously.

"Hello," she said before running off into the white.

The white began to fade.

He looked all around him again.

"Are you going to train with me?" the girl asked from somewhere.

He tried to find her, looking all around him, or so it felt.

He felt like he was in the middle of a big cloud.

The white began to lift like fog.

He looked down.

He could see green.

Grass.

He was standing on green grass.

"Yes," he replied.

"Are you sure?" she asked him.

"Yes."

The white was whisked away like a breeze and he felt like he'd stepped into a child's story book. One with big pictures of forests and gardens, with pretty flowers and a waterfall that fell into a beautiful pool with little colourful fish and bright great lily pads with big white flowers and splendid green frogs.

Actually he thought as he looked around and took a deep breath of fresh clean air...he was in a forest.

A forest with tall trees that reached up to the cloudless blue sky. They were lush and green and a gentle breeze ran through them. They were superior to the ones on Naboo.

He looked around and could see the waterfall that fell into the pool.

He smiled and headed over to it, walking through a path of colourful flowers.

There sitting by the pool, putting together a lightsaber was the girl.

The girl in the pink and white jumpsuit with long blonde hair tied back.

She smiled at him and morphed into a beautiful woman in her prime. She attached the completed lightsaber to her belt.

She laughed at him, placing her left hand on her hip and beckoned him to sit by her.

He did, taking his place at her side.

"I think you got lost at some point, Young Anakin," she said.

"Lost?" Skywalker replied

"Look around you," she said, gesturing with her right hand, "does this look familiar to you?"

Anakin looked around.

He marvelled the beauty of the forest.

The trees standing tall, the lush green of the grass, the bountiful colours of the flowers and their petals, the raw blue of the waterfall, the elegant blue of the pool, the various shades of quartz and clay of the rocks.

The place was magnificent.

But alas, he had never seen it before, though it easily rivalled places he had been.

"This," she said, continuing to gesture with her right hand, "was but a picture in a book, a very very old book."

"But it's real now," Anakin replied.

She placed her hand in her lap and chuckled as she looked at him.

"It's not. It's still just a figment of a memory from a long long time ago in a time far far in the past."

Anakin looked at her curiously.

"Who are you?" he asked.

She smiled at him.

"You'll figure it out."

"Will I?" Anakin replied.

"I can only offer guidance, not knowledge. You must figure out your own path, to wherever it may lead you."

She stood up and wandered over to a very tall tree.

Anakin reckoned it was at least a thousand years old if not older.

She turned around and leant on its mighty trunk.

"Pick a route, Young Anakin. Any route. Dive into the pool if you really want to, no one here will judge you, as ultimately it's your decision, your journey, and you can start it wherever you want or end it wherever you want or not even bother. But be wise like the wise young knight you are, for decisions made cannot be undone easily if not at all."

Anakin stood up and walked over to her.

"Will I find out who you are, Master Jedi?" he asked.

"At some point, but not this point. Not now."

"But some point?"

She nodded briefly.

"Is this a trick?"

"There are no tricks," she told him, "only the Force. And you may go wherever you wish here. To the past, to the present, to the future. But make your decisions well and remember the Force does not control time."

With that she wandered off into thin air.

Anakin looked around but he couldn't find her...but he could see a lightsaber lying on a lily pad and he thought that was as good a starting place as any.

He walked over to the pool and knelt beside it.

He looked down and saw his own reflection.

That handsome young knight he was, dressed in light brown and white robes just like his master's.

He looked at the lightsaber on the lily pad.

Anakin didn't recognise it.

It was just a lightsaber.

He couldn't even tell how old it was.

As he reached for it the lily pad decided to play a game and scooted across the other side of the pool.

Amused by this Anakin stood up and wandered over to the other side...only for the lily pad to scoot across again.

Anakin smirked...ditched his outer robe and dived into the pool and grabbing the lightsaber off of the lily pad.

He heard a tut in annoyance.

He hadn't played by the rules.

What rules?

There were no rules in his eyes.

He inspected the lightsaber closely.

He definitely did not recognise it.

The forest faded to white...

He was stood up, holding the lightsaber...and then it dawned it on him...he looked around in alarm and comfort.

The Force caressed him in the only way it had to.

He had become one with the Force itself.


	10. Chapter 10

Disclaimer: I do not own Star Wars. This is merely a fan-based fiction.  
Please Rate & Review.

* * *

Padmé could sense that Anakin had died and a silent tear fell from her right tear duct and slowly made it's way down her cheek.

Bail wiped it away.

"What is it, Padmé?" he asked.

She looked at him.

"It's Anakin," she admitted.

She looked out of the nearest window and saw her reflection.

She saw Senator Amidala...no...she saw Padmé Amidala, dressed up as Senator Amidala. They wore the same dark purple robes to conceal their pregnancies, had the same Nabooian twin looped bun hairstyles, the same long yet simple silver earrings...but she saw Anakin's wife...she saw Padmé Naberrie Skywalker...the woman who had had horrific dreams where she saw Anakin die at the hands of Darth Sidious and had prayed they wouldn't come true...she had heard Anakin's promise to not die...

Yoda snapped her out of her reverie.

"Dangerous your thoughts are," he warned her.

Padmé nodded and let her mind go blank...but then it thought of a memory...a very beautiful and romantic memory...one where she and Anakin forgot their respective roles in life and behaved like any normal married couple...

_The trees were in full blossom. Various shades of blue, pink, violet, peach and ochre danced around them._

_Birds sang beautiful songs, the waterfalls provided their own gushing harmonies in the distance._

_They were alone. Completely isolated in nature and had a few hours to kill before Anakin had to return to the capital to catch a flight back to Coruscant._

_Devoid of his upper tunics, Anakin laid sprawled in the long grass, his right arm tucked underneath his head. His left wrapped around slim Padmé's waist. He was looking up at the sky, watching the clouds go by._

_Padmé was resting against Anakin's chest, also looking up at the sky, enjoying nature's melody and the sound of Anakin's beating heart._

_They barely saw each other, their respective duties consuming virtually all their time._

_It was only because of yet another assassination attempt on the infamous senator that Anakin had been ordered to look after her._

_The heavy Jedi presence that had been on Naboo rapidly deserted, with masters, padawans and knights returning the temple, being reassigned to other duties or returning to their existing ones._

_Anakin and his padawan Ahsoka had been given orders to head to the temple, but not yet._

_After leaving Ahsoka to catch up on her studies at Padmé's parents house, the pair had escaped to wilderness._

_Anakin took a deep breath and sighed in contentment._

_"What do you think that cloud looks like?" Anakin asked out of the blue._

_"Which one?" Padmé replied._

_Anakin pointed at a particular white blob in the sky._

_"That one? Looks like bird," she said, looking at it._

_"Funny, I thought it looked like a starfighter."_

_Padmé smiled._

_"Okay, how about that one?" she said, pointing to another cloud._

_"Easy. That looks like R2."_

_"No it doesn't," she replied, sitting up and looking at him._

_Anakin shrugged._

_"Does it matter?" he asked, returning her gaze._

_"Not really," she replied._

_He smiled and looked back up at the sky and burst out laughing._

_She looked at him in bemusement._

_He pointed to the sky and she looked._

_"That one looks like Yoda on a bad day!" he laughed._

_Padmé chuckled._

_"I suppose you're right," she said quietly, not really seeing what he saw but the mental image it gave her was enough._

_Her smile faded._

_Anakin pushed himself up onto his elbows and crossed his right foot over his left._

_"What's wrong?" he asked._

_Padmé looked down at the ground and played with one of the small flowers that habituated in the long grass meadow._

_"Padmé?" he asked, sitting up straight, "what's wrong?"_

_He gently stroked her face with his flesh hand._

_"You're trembling. Please tell me," he encouraged._

_"It's nothing," she said, looking at him._

_"Doesn't look like nothing to me," he told her, placing a hand behind her neck, "looks like something is bothering you."_

_"Tell me?"_

_Padmé expression changed to one of confusion then amusement._

_"Did you just bat your eyelids at me?" she asked._

_Anakin looked mildly surprised to say the least._

_"Bat my eyelids at you? Nope. Not me. I would never do that," he denied._

_Padmé cocked an eyelid. Now she knew for a fact that he was lying, and that he'd batted his eyelids on purpose._

_"Oh really?" she quizzed._

_"Never!" he laughed._

_Definitely lying._

_"Okay I did," he admitted, "but only because there's something on your mind and you won't tell me!"_

_Padmé rolled her eyes and sighed._

_Anakin lay back down and invited her to rest on him again, and she did. He wrapped his arms around her and rested his chin on the top of her head._

_"It's the assassination attempt," she finally admitted._

_"Pretty nasty, eh?" he said._

_She nodded in agreement._

_"Don't think about it. We're safe. Nobody was seriously hurt or killed. Lets just live in the moment and enjoy the time we have," he said._

_He was right. When it came to these sorts of things Anakin was always right. Maybe it was the Jedi training or perhaps it was because Anakin had such a big heart. He had so much love._

_Padmé believed it was the latter. Anakin had been nothing but caring towards her right from the first day they had met._

_She smiled at a memory and looked at her dress. Yes, the exact same dress that she wore that time when she had assassins after her just before the start of the Clone Wars when she and Anakin were hiding on Naboo and they were in a meadow._

_She smiled at the coincidence._

_"Why are you smiling?" Anakin asked curiously._

_"Just remembering something from our past, something happy," she told him._

_"That's okay then."_

_He stroked her hair._

_She closed her eyes, content to just listen to Anakin's heart beating._

_"I'll be glad when all this is over," he said, looking up at the sky._

_"Many will be glad when the Clone Wars are over," she added._

_"When that happens, what are you going to do?"_

_Padmé pondered that. What was she going to do?_

_"Remain as senator to Naboo I guess, though I could retire if I wanted. I've worked hard enough to warrant retirement."_

_"I don't know what will happen with the Jedi. The Sith will still be out there, we don't know who the Sith master is, and then there's Dooku and Grievous and several dark Jedi running amok. We have to find and capture them. But I know one thing when this is over, we'll be able to see more of each other."_

_Padmé smiled at the notion._

_The idea that Anakin would be sent on fewer deep reaching missions and have more spare time to spend with her. They barely saw each other on the rare occasions when they were both on Coruscant. But retiring? That meant she could return to Naboo, get an apartment of her own on Coruscant rather than the one she had courtesy of her job and visit whenever Anakin was on-planet. It also meant her secret marriage to Anakin could be less of a secret, maybe even get 'married' on their anniversary to hide their tracks and the fact their marriage had been a lot longer._

_Both paths enticed her. It all depended on how much she was willing give up after the end of the Clone Wars._

_"Would you ever be queen of Naboo again?" Anakin asked her out of curiosity._

_"No," she said with a smile, "I was glad when my two terms were up, it's very demanding and I don't fancy that pressure again, besides it would mean amending the constitution. Why did you ask?"_

_"Just curious," Anakin said nonchalantly._

_"Is it normal for Jedi to be curious?" she asked, teasing him._

_Anakin laughed._

_"Just human," he told her._

_"I know."_

_The silence that fell between them was easy and gentle. They allowed the soundtrack of nature to lull them and calm their nerves, like a balm to all the pain of the Clone Wars..._

Padmé was brought out of her thoughts by Eirtaé gently nudging her.

She looked at her handmaiden and between them shared a knowing look.

Senator Amidala looked up and out of the window.

The transport had docked at the Jedi Temple.


	11. Chapter 11

Disclaimer: I do not own Star Wars. This is merely a fan-based fiction.  
Please Rate & Review.

* * *

The four of them stood up and made their way to the exit, Yoda leading the way.

Mace Windu greeted them as they exited.

"Master Windu," Padmé greeted politely.

"Senator Amidala, Senator Organa," he said with a slight nod of his head, "welcome to the Jedi Temple."

"Thank you, Master Jedi," she replied.

Eirtaé followed behind as the group headed indoors, into the shade of the temple.

"Any news on Obi-Wan, Master Windu?" Yoda asked.

"Unfortunately," the human Jedi replied, "Obi-Wan had to be rushed back into surgery after post-op complications arose. Vokara didn't have time to explain."

Yoda showed no visible emotions but the other master, the senators and the handmaiden knew that inside, like them all, he was concerned.

Mace continued speaking.

"Anakin has now arrived at the temple and Aayla Secura has landed the captured Separatist ship. A team of clones and knights are dispatching the remaining droids as we speak."

Padmé felt her heart tie itself in knots.

Her footsteps felt heavy and she felt cold. Not cold due to the temperature, quite the contrary; it was a warm day, even in the vastness of the Jedi temple.

But she felt cold inside.

Like all the joy had been sucked out and all was left was an empty void of darkness.

In her heart she knew all would be in vain.

Yoda had known right from the off how the senator felt. She was strong in the Force, stronger than most non sensitive beings and reading her took a little more effort than normal.

Unbeknownst to the senator the Force was gathering around her like a security blanket, offering her protection that she was either too distraught to accept or unable to sense.

She would feel it at some point. Yoda was sure of this.

"Good news there is then," Yoda said, more so to himself.

"Have the bodies of Palpatine and Dooku been found yet?" Bail asked.

"They have," Mace confirmed, "Aayla Secura has reported that in and is overseeing their removal from the ship."

"What will happen to the bodies?" Padmé asked blankly.

"They will be autopsied and destroyed. Even a dead Sith lord is still a threat," Mace told them.

"How much of a threat?" she asked.

"Think not of that," Yoda told her, "focus on Anakin and Obi-Wan."

"I want to see Ahsoka," she said quietly, "to pay my respects."

Yoda nodded.

"Take you to her, I shall."

"Thank you," she whispered.

A silent tear fell down her face and she wiped it away furiously.

The others pretended it hadn't fell.

The group walked in silence the remainder of the way to the Halls of Healing where Barriss Offee greeted them upon entrance.

"Master Offee."

The healer nodded her head.

"I'm afraid you will have to wait if you wish to see Masters Kenobi and Skywalker," she informed them.

"Wish to see Ahsoka we do," Yoda told her.

Barriss smiled sadly and nodded.

"You know where she is."

"I'll stay here, with all respect, Masters," Bail told them.

Mace nodded, then exchanged an understanding look with Yoda. The Jedi Master nodded his head in understanding.

Padmé and Eirtaé made eye contact. A lot was said without uttering a single word, a practise honed from the years spent as Queen and Handmaiden.

Eirtaé nodded her head and remained behind as Padmé went with Yoda.

They walked quietly, side by side down the gently lit corridor before Yoda quietly spoke.

"Do this, you do not have to. Understand, Ahsoka would."

"I have to."

Yoda knew from years of knowing her that Senator Amidala never swayed, sticking to her word.

Yoda stopped outside a ward, and gestured, choosing to wait outside, observing her without giving any sign.

She hesitated momentarily and looked at Yoda, face set in a neutral expression, but he read between the lines and nodded, smiling slightly.

She turned and entered the small darkened ward, lit only by a few lonely soft candle-like lights, casting one misty shadow across the walls and ceiling. Yoda followed her in.

They were silent as sleeping mice as they approached the curtained off bed the fallen Padawan had been laid on.

Yoda stopped as Padmé went around the curtain, waiting in the shadows, providing the quiet support she needed.

One of the healers had left one of the soft lights on by Ashoka's right side, illuminating the area and making Ahsoka seem like an fallen angel.

Yoda could sense Padmé's discomfort and distress rising and went round the curtain separating them.

One of the healers had pulled a white cloth over Ahsoka which came up to her abdomen to hide her terminal wound. It hadn't been there when he had last seen her.

"She looks peaceful," Padmé said aloud.

"At one with the Force she is," Yoda reminded her, "a shell remains behind."

"So she's okay?" Padmé asked, looking at him.

"Yes," he replied softly.

Padmé stepped up to the Padawan's side.

Ahsoka's eyes were closed and she looked relaxed, as if she was in a very deep sleep, must waiting for Anakin to return so he wake her up with yet another freezing bucket of cold water.

She laughed at Anakin's recollection of that and it lifted her flagging spirits a little.

"She was so young," Padmé whispered.

"Remember her for living you must," Yoda insisted, hoping to make ground on whatever was making her happy inside, he tapped his gimer stick on the floor, "alive in the Force she is, with us forever the Force is."

Padmé shed a tear before smiling. The sadness was still there, holding onto her like a wet sloppy blanket.

"Rest well, Ahsoka," she told her.

She turned slowly on her heel and left, followed by Yoda.

"Focus on the living, Padmé," Yoda told her softly.

She didn't appear to have heard him.

"Senator Amidala?" Yoda asked.

She turned and looked at him.

"Sorry, Master Yoda," she replied.

"Remain at the Temple, you are welcome to," he informed her.

She was about to respond when Eirtaé appeared.

"Beg your pardon, Milady. Chancellor Mon Mothma wishes to speak with you urgently."

"Thank you, Eirtaé," she said to her Handmaiden.

Padmé turned to Yoda.

"Go with you, a Jedi shall," Yoda told her.

"I'll do it."

The trio turned round to see Master Siri Tachi approaching them, still dressed in her burgundy coloured flight suit, fresh from the battle above.

"If you wish that is, Senator," Siri added.

Padmé nodded her agreement.

"Thank you, Master Tachi," Yoda told her.

She nodded.

"Ready, Senator?"

Padmé nodded.

"This way," she said, gesturing with her right hand.

Eirtaé followed behind.

Safely out of Yoda's hearing range, Padmé struck up conversation.

"How have you been, Siri?" she asked.

"Well, Padmé. How about you and the baby?"

Padmé flinched slightly at the mention of her pregnancy so openly but then reminded herself; in the temple, every padawan, knight and master in the temple probably could sense her unborn child.

"We're fine," she replied quickly.

"You don't have to lie, Padmé, none of the Jedi feel okay. Ashoka's death rippled through the force. Palpatine killed her, that sort of thing tends to hit like a tsunami."

"And Anakin?" Padmé asked.

"Just, a vastness," the knight replied, looking down at the floor and stopping.

The senator and her handmaiden also stopped.

Siri looked back up at Padmé with determination glittering in her eyes.

"But I have hope. We must all have hope, for Anakin's sake."

"You saw him, didn't you?" Padmé deducted.

Unbeknownst to the senator, the Jedi knight had just mentally kicked herself up her metaphorical derrière.

"I saw Anakin when he was brought in," Siri told her, "he's a real mess. But please let the healers get on with their jobs. Don't demand to see him and defiantly not like the last time, right at the beginning of The Clone Wars," Siri reminded her, "I remember the last time a pregnant woman kicked off in the Halls of Healing."

Siri shuddered. Padmé laughed.

She actually laughed.

"I know that deep down you think he's dead, Padmé. But this is Anakin we're talking about. He's the little punk who grew up into a brave young man and he's a fighter."

"He made a promise to come back," Padmé told her.

"And Anakin always keeps his promises," Siri reminded her, "no matter how dire the situation. I was his babysitter, remember?"

"Is he like how you were on that mission to Azure? Comatose, surviving in the space between life and death?" Padmé asked.

"I don't know," Siri admitted, "I only saw him when he was brought in. Vokara kept me away. They'll both be fine, I'm sure of it, no matter what the Force is saying."

"What is the Force saying?" Padmé asked.

Siri smiled sadly.

"Lots of things, Padmé. Lots of things."

Siri began walking again and the Senator and her handmaiden followed.

"We'll be sharing the transport with several clones," Siri forewarned her, "it's doing a multi-drop trip."

Padmé nodded in agreement.

The three woman entered the busy hanger bay.

Clones, droids and Jedi alike were repairing and looking over damaged craft, helping the injured, restocking weapons and preparing for take off.

They headed over to their transport.

Padmé boarded first. She nodded at the Clones onboard before sitting at the back. Eirtaé sat to her right.

"Master Tachi!"

The Jedi Master master turned around to see a young female humanoid Padawan running towards her.

A young female blonde-haired humanoid Padawan without a master. A master who had been killed during the wars only a few weeks previously.

"Padawan Stormrider," she addressed the youngster, "you're supposed to be in the training rooms."

"I'm sorry Master...I was just-"

"Tag along, Padawan. That's an order," Siri warned.

"Yes, Master," she replied, immediately boarding the transport after Master Tachi.

Siri sat down by the Senator's left and Padawan Stormrider sat down beside Tachi.

"My apologies, Senator," Siri said formally, "Padawan Stormrider will join us as part of her teachings," Siri announced.

"Hello, Padawan," the Senator said politely.

"Greetings, Senator," the Padawan replied.

A comfortable silence fell in the transport as the doors closed and it took off.

"Padawan, you're to observe only," Siri instructed.

"Yes, Master."

The Force was singing. Had started to do so when Stormrider had made herself known...

She looked at Padmé who was looking at the clones; their white armour gleaming. 'Shinies' as Rex called them. Inexperienced clones.

Padmé looked out of a window and her memory selected an in flight movie for her: the battle of Geonosis, or rather a small part of it.


	12. Chapter 12

This is a fan written fiction not made for profit. Please R&R.

Author's Notes: I've forgone the beta readers on this occasion as I'm heading to Cambodia on a research trip so this chapter isn't up to scratch, however I wanted to get something up as it's been a long time between chapters. My apologies, my uni degree is very intense.

* * *

_Padmé Amidala came to her senses quickly and groggily._

_She heard footsteps approaching her and she opened her eyes, instantly regretting it as the bright sun blinded her momentarily. _

_She hurt all over. Her skin felt sore and burnt from the white hot sand and she groaned in pain._

_Someone knelt beside her._

"_Are you alright?"_

_It was one of the Clones._

_She realised he must've been thrown from the transport in addition to her._

"_Uh-uh," she replied, getting up slowly and gingerly. That fall had hurt a lot but she held back a wince. _

_The Clone got up as she did, placing his free hand back on his weapon and steadying it._

_She thought about what had happened quickly._

_She remembered Anakin yelling her name...falling from the ship onto the hot sand dunes...pain...blackness._

_The impact had knocked her out brilliantly. Now Anakin and Obi-Wan were who knew where on the miserable planet. _

"_We'd better get back to the Forward Command Centre," the Clone said._

_That snapped Padmé right to her senses. _

"_No," she stated as she quickly dusting herself off._

"_No."_

_She looked at the Clone directly._

"_Gather what troops you can, we've got to get to that hanger. Get a transport."_

_She wondered why the Clone hadn't moved yet._

"_Hurry!" she ordered firmly._

"_Right away!" the Clone obeyed, taking off in a run; Padmé followed him._

_She had to help Anakin and Obi-Wan. She didn't know how she could help but she refused to let them face Count Dooku on their own. She cared about them. She loved Anakin. And she owed it to both of them. Both had risked their own lives to save her life, now it was her time to risk hers... _

_And after what felt like an age of running on the same bit of landscape for many many years (in reality only a few minutes) they encountered a battalion of Clones...who weren't alone..._

"_Get down!" the Clone told her._

_Padmé ducked as a shot from a blaster hit the sand dune immediately behind her._

_She covered her head then looked up. _

"_Run for the transport!" the Clone told her, gesturing ahead. _

_She looked to where the Clone had pointed, saw a transport just touching down, Clone Troopers jumping from it and immediately going to their comrades already fighting against an isolated droid battalion, blasters blazing. The air thick with dust and lights. _

_The Clones seemed to have the situation under control; the droid numbers were diminishing rapidly. _

_The Clone took aim and shot at two droids aiming for the Senator. _

"_Hurry!" the Clone urged her. _

_Padmé took off at once, running as fast as she could, the Clone followed her, covering her back. _

_He signalled to several of the other Clones who ran to assist him._

_Just as Padmé was pulled aboard by another Clone, she saw the other transport on the horizon heading in the direction Dooku had been heading. She knew it was Anakin. He'd made the right call. _

_The Clone and three others boarded the transport._

"_Follow that transport! They'll need our help!" Padmé ordered the pilot, pointing towards the horizon._

_The Clone nodded._

"_Right away."_

_The transport took off promptly and got onto the trail of the other ship. _

_Padmé felt her stomach tie itself in huge knots as she held onto the netting, eyes and mind focused ahead._

_Anakin had to be okay. She wasn't sure what was going on. The other transport had disappeared. And Obi-Wan? Underneath her calm and experience honed exterior she was anything but. Only years of training kept her looking every bit the calm calculated senator she had become after being a dedicated painted queen. _

"_Here, have this."_

_Padmé turned round._

_The Clone was offering her a blaster and she took it gratefully. _

"_Thank you."_

_The Clone nodded..._

Padmé came out of her reverie and smiled a small smile at the Clones who were all talking amongst themselves about the 501st Battalion.

She wondered what would become of them. Of all the Clones. When the Clone Wars ended what use would they be?

That was certainly one issue to be talked about at the Senate at some point. Her own personal view on the matter was that Clones should remain with the Jedi to assist them on further missions.

The Padawan then got her attention by sneezing. She apologised immediately, returning her attention back to her lap. Siri smiled at the Padawan then returned to looking out of the window.

Padmé herself stared out of the window but the Padawan just kept catching the corner of her eye. She wasn't doing anything to warren attention. She was just sitting there innocently enough.

She was small and young. Very young actually. Padmé reckoned she couldn't have been much older than seven. Her long golden-blonde hair was tied back in a simple ponytail except for her Padawan braid which was tucked behind her right ear. It was the same length as the rest of her hair. Then there were her eyes. They were electric blue. She knew from her few experiences with Padawans that this particular Padawan was one of those 'look quiet, actually a real handful' Padawan learners.

Padawan...what was her name again?

Padmé tried to recall it.

Skyrider...no that wasn't right...something along those lines. Stormrider.

That was her name...and her name sounded familiar.

Padmé continued to study the Padawan without giving the impression she was.

She was so sure she knew the Padawan, unless it was her mind's way of trying to cope with Ahsoka's death and everything else that was going on.

A knot tightened in her throat and she looked out of the window again, blanking Stormrider out.

It was too much. Everything was too much. Palpatine's real identity, her dreams, Stormrider's presence, Ahsoka's death-

She dreaded to think how Anakin and Obi-Wan would react when they were told.

The news would destroy her husband and good friend.

Anakin thought the world of Ahsoka, and they were certainly a fantastic team. She had grown up under his tutelage, become such a fantastic Jedi. Anakin's wild ways had shaped her into a brilliant young Jedi who would've been knighted at a young age.

"Try not to think about it."

Padmé looked at the young Padawan looking at her with those big blue eyes, deep like a deep stormy blue sea.

"Padawan Stormrider," Master Tachi admonished.

"No, Siri, it's okay. She's right," Senator Amidala reassured.

"If you're sure? She did speak out of terms," Tachi said.

Padmé nodded.

"There is no need to admonish your Padawan in public."

"Stormrider is not my Padawan," Tachi informed her, "her Master was killed in action three weeks ago. She's yet to be reassigned to another Master."

"I'm sorry," Padmé immediately apologised.

"It wasn't your fault, Senator," Padawan Stormrider told her.

They spoke no more as the transport pulled up outside the senate building.

The doors opened and the four women got up and stepped out, Senator Amidala leading and Padawan Stormrider bringing up the rear.

Chancellor Mon Mothma greeted them.

"Senator Amidala. Master Jedi."

"Chancellor," Padmé greeted.

Siri nodded her head in respect.

"Chancellor."

Mon Mothma quickly lead the group inside, past the huge pillars of the entrance and into the maze of corridors that lead to the Chancellor's office.

Mon Mothma's office, Padmé corrected herself. She couldn't think of it as the Chancellor's office. That sounded like Palpatine. It sounded evil.

"Thank you, Senator, for coming so quickly. I'm sorry about the short notice," Mon Mothma told her.

"That's okay, Chancellor," Amidala replied.

The walk to Mon Mothma's office was quick and brisk.

Everyone got out of their way.

"Would your entourage mind leaving us to talk?" Mon Mothma asked politely as they reached the outer part of her office.

"Not at all, Chancellor," Amidala replied.

"We'll be in the canteen," Tachi replied.

Amidala nodded her thanks.

Tachi and Stormrider both bowed and left. Eirtaé joined them after a silent word exchanged through a look with Padmé.

The Chancellor and Senator entered the office and Padmé was please and delighted to discover it had been redecorated entirely, not yet completely but enough to transform it from how it was.

Obviously Mon Mothma hadn't agreed with Palpatine's taste of colours.

The office walls were white for a start. The whole office was various shades of white with lashings of silver and amber and Padmé felt like she had stepped into a breath of fresh air.

It felt huge and tranquil and confirmed Padmé's belief that Mon Mothma was the right person for the job.

Mon Mothma turned round to face Padmé.

"Again my congratulations on your appointment, Chancellor," Padmé said.

"This is actually an unofficial chat, Padmé, like the ones we had with those other senators about Palpatine."

"And our suspicions were correct."

"That's what I want to talk about," Mothma replied, "you mentioned in the last gathering about involving the Jedi, well it's that I wish to talk about."

"How so?" Padmé queried.

"It's my view that the Jedi need a representative at the Senate, they have played such an integral role in The Clone Wars it would be illogical to not involve them. It would give both the Senate and the Jedi a fixed person of contact in the future. I've already spoken to Master Yoda about having a Jedi representative at the Senate and he agrees with the idea. Obviously it will have to go through official channels."

"I agree with you, Chancellor. But who could handle that role? Obviously it would have to be someone the Jedi and Senate trusted," Padmé pointed out, having a sneaky suspicion as to who Mothma would recommend.

"Actually, Padmé. I was thinking of you taking on the role."

Padmé's suspicion was correct.

"I know it would mean you stepping down as Senator to Naboo, and this would have to go through official channels to avoid any cries of deception."

"There are others the Jedi trust," Padmé pointed out.

"But it's you with the history, you the Jedi know and trust. We will see how this plays out, but for now, think about the position."

"I will," Padmé replied.

"Now onto other matters, if you ever feel the need to take time off, I understand, Padmé."

"Thank you, Chancellor, but it isn't required."

Mon Mothma smiled a knowing smile.

"You're good, Padmé, but you can't hide from another woman's instincts that easily. Look after yourself, let Jar Jar Bings stand in for you. It can't be easy being pregnant and don't worry I won't tell unless you do."

Padmé managed somehow to hide her shock.

Mon Mothma took her hands.

"If you ever need anything, as a friend, let me know, please," Mothma said, and smiled.

Padmé nodded in agreement and Mothma let go.

"Now go rest, Padmé. You look exhausted!"

"I will," she lied.

"Very well, that's everything I wished to cover."

"Mon Mothma, when will you bringing up the Jedi representative in the senate?" Padmé asked.

"When the Jedi are ready," Mothma replied, "now go and rest, it's not good for you to be overexerting yourself in your condition."

Padmé nodded.

"Good day, Chancellor," she said as she went to leave.

Mothma nodded.

"See you, Padmé."

END


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